Fresh Air and Exercise

signs of activity

One of the dangers of homeschooling for our family is the tendency to become stationary. When the boys were younger it was hard to make them hold still for more than a minute at a time. Now that they are 11 and nearly 14, it takes a little more effort to get them motivated.

I noticed a few weeks ago that JT seemed to be dragging around the house a bit more than usual. Both of the boys are sleeping later and picking at each other a little more. I know we need to come up with a plan to get more active. But when winter comes it's not easy to want to do that. EM still likes to play in the snow but JT isn't always as enthusiastic. Last week we had a surprise snow storm that dumped about nine inches on us. I sent the boys out that morning and was thrilled that they stayed out for almost two hours. We have a great sledding hill so that provides plenty of exercise on the hike back to the top. They ran around the yard throwing snowballs and were thoroughly exhausted when they came in the house. Unfortunately our snow melted after only a few days and now we are back to the cold days with little or no sunshine.

I always have good intentions to start some kind of workout program with them when we hit this point in the year. So far we've had six years of homeschooling without success on the exercise plan. I'm thinking this year that simple would be best. During our Christmas break I'm going to try to come up with an easy answer to get all of us out of our seats for the rest of the winter months. Leaving the house to go to a gym or the YMCA doesn't work for us, especially in the winter, since our road is not always kept clear when the weather is bad. We do have the Wii Fit and EM enjoys using it. JT always tells me that his drumming practice counts as exercise, which may be true, but since he doesn't practice every day, I'd like to see a little more movement.  Our treadmill needs a new belt, but will be fixed as soon as we get around to buying a replacement. JT doesn't like using it, but the rest of us do. We also own a few small weights, an exercise ball, and a collection of work out DVDs.

So now that you know what we have to work with I could use a few suggestions for my planning. Do you have any tips on easy effective exercise programs that keep you active but don't break the bank?